Editorial: Trauma of Boston Globe closing would be felt by all

Wednesday

Apr 29, 2009 at 12:01 AMApr 29, 2009 at 3:45 PM

The Patriot Ledger has competed with the Boston Globe for stories and advertising for more than a century and yet we’re frightened to think how much we and the communities we both serve would lose if it went away.

The Patriot Ledger has competed with The Boston Globe for stories and advertising for more than a century and yet we’re frightened to think how much we and the communities we serve would lose if it went away.

This fear is not rooted in the realization that the Globe’s demise speaks to our vulnerability as an industry. It is rooted in the realization that its demise increases our vulnerability as a community.

In issues of health, safety and money, aggressive reporting at the Globe has had a profound impact on our lives.

Its relentless pursuit of the Catholic priest sex scandal has made life safer for our children.

Its incessant scrutiny of state spending and backroom politics has saved us countless tax dollars.

And its ability to powerfully convey the suffering of the poor and oppressed has led to countless changes that have improved their lives and our humanity.

We as a community cannot afford to be without that kind of advocacy.

The Patriot Ledger has a proud history of providing these same services and protections to the communities we serve.

It has not always been easy working in the shadow of such a Goliath as the Globe. But we’ve given as well as we’ve taken in the fight for readers’ eyes and advertisers’ dollars. And we are not too proud to recognize that the Globe – by virtue of its roll as a competitor – has made us a better paper. It is yet another reason we do not want to see the Globe die.

There are increasingly dire forecasts regarding newspapers.

The Web has become the center of our universe. And while papers everywhere have figured out how to use it to bring you the news, nobody has figured out how to use it to generate the revenue needed to gather the news. There will likely be more pain before that issue is resolved. But we’re confident it will happen.

The importance of news gathering cannot be overstated. Blogging and aggregating news is cheap. But the efforts are worthless without the the content professional journalists provide.

If anything good has come from talks of closing the Globe it is that more people are recognizing the value of what newspapers do.

The New York Times Co., the Globe’s owner, has said the paper is on track to lose $85 million this year. It has told the Globe’s 13 labor unions they need to trim $20 million from their budgets by Friday or the paper will be shut down.

The unions face a difficult choice: make difficult and substantial concessions, or risking the loss of their newspaper and employer.

We hope vigorous bargaining, with each side recognizing and constructively dealing with the economic challenges, results in a compromise that preserves the Globe as a newspaper.

This industry will find a way to survive. And it benefits us all if the Globe is still around when it does.